Sea of colour in the Open jungle

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There are two Australian Open tournaments under way at Melbourne
Park.

The first is on centre court where three former Australian
champions were in action yesterday - Serena Williams, Roger Federer
and Andre Agassi.

The other tournament is on the back courts. It's a jungle out
there. Anything goes.

While Federer accounted for Fabrice Santoro of France with a
minimum of fuss, a small contingent of chanting Croatian fans,
carrying Croatian flags and wearing red, white and blue shirts,
wandered in search of someone else to support - one of their
heroes, Mario Ancic, having finished his match on court 19. On
court 6, supporters in orange shirts cheered on Peter Wessels of
the Netherlands. A trio of young Argentinian fans passed by, just
three of a record first-day crowd of 36,501.

Pressed up against court 10, a scattering of British supporters
- one draped in a Union Jack, the other in the red and white cross
of St George - watched bespectacled Elena Baltacha prevail in three
tight sets over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia. Baltacha, 21, was
born in Ukraine, has a mother who was a pentathlete for Russia, and
has lived in Scotland - hence the blue and white Scottish flag
being waved as she finally nailed a forehand to win a marathon
multicultural match.

On court 8, the French Open champ of 2002, Albert Costa of
Spain, was going down, giving all those with red and yellow banners
little reason to be cheerful. Ditto the Americans basking in the
sunshine beside court 11: the Jan-Michael Gambill fan club.

They love Jan-Michael. All men, all with their shirts off, they
had spelt this out on their chests, which meant one was spending
his day as a hyphen. Despite - or because? - of this, Gambill
crashed out to Japan's Takao Suzuki, whose admirers kept their
shirts on.

So did Englishman Tim Henman, who attracted admirers as he had a
practice hit. But on court 5, local hope Lleyton Hewitt practised
some serves topless, causing advocates of slip, slop, slap to give
up in despair.

Heading Hewitt's way was a trio of female fans decked in green
and yellow ensembles, with spangly tutus and balls made of tennis
balls. They would have easily won the day's oddest outfit award if
Serena Williams had not put in a pre-emptive bid.

Williams evidently designs her own tennis clothes, which means
that any questions about them should be directed to her. Only she
understands the thinking behind the button-up yellow jacket and the
knee-high superhero leggings with yellow trim in which she appeared
on court.

In the tennis version of strip poker, these were removed during
or after the warm-up, revealing a yellow singlet top and tennis
shoes with yellow trim.

In the Australian green and gold are J.J. McAteer, Kylie Hammond and Kate LeePhoto:Jason South

In all the excitement of playing her first Open match in two
years Williams forgot to secure the shoes. So, in the second game
against Camille Pin of France (comparatively demure in white),
Williams was separated from her right shoe. It stayed left while
she moved right, causing a point to be replayed. "I guess I forgot
to tie them," she said later.

The winners who followed her on and off Centre Court gave
fashion writers less food for thought. Neither Federer nor Agassi
had any costume changes. They made their entrances ready for
action: Federer in vivid blue, with white headband; Agassi in
boring black and white.

The man from Las Vegas is now 34 and officially the oldest man
in the tournament. Gone are the days when he fancied himself as a
trend-setter. No more long-sleeved shirts or pirate's bandannas for
Andre.

Both had straight-sets victories. Federer, the titleholder, was
more impressive, losing only four games. His opponent, Santoro,
sought assistance from a trainer. But the Frenchman was honest
enough later when asked about his problem to reply: "Roger".
Actually, Santoro had a wrist ailment, for which he had taken an
anti-inflammatory. Agassi is taking similar treatment for the hip
injury that threatened to derail his Open campaign late last week.
The hip hasn't stopped him. Nor could German qualifier Dieter
Kindlmann.

Agassi joked that he has "a whole stash" of anti-inflammatory
drugs he plans to use. These must be legal. Meanwhile, rumours
swirled around of a woman player testing positive for an illicit
substance after a recent exhibition match in Belgium. Details were
sketchy. One of those involved in the match, reigning US Open champ
Svetlana Kuznetsova, made it clear that the media seemed to know
more than the players. She declared herself "pretty calm", as "I am
definitely not using nothing to push myself up".

The conjunction of drugs and sport always causes headlines. But
in the sunshine outside, the Open continued. On centre court and
back courts. Players winning; players losing. And all those fans
searching for someone else to see.